Do you know your Detroit-style from your New Haven apizza? Neapolitan from Grandma?

We’re living in a golden age of regional pizza. Distinct favorites are breaking out of their local confines—now you can get lacy-edged Detroit pies in Nashville, charred New Haven look-alikes in Denver, and autentico Roman pies in Chicago. It’s glorious—and overwhelming. So we’ve cataloged a cross section of the current pizza universe and suggested standout examples all over the country for you to do some...research.

Photo by Matt Ritscher

The eponymous pizza at Denver's White Pie. An imperfectly shaped pie is a hallmark of some of New Haven’s most famous pies.

New Haven Apizza

The Style: Pilgrims once had to trek to Sally’s or Frank Pepe’s in Connecticut for coal-fired char and chewy oblong pies. No longer. The gospel of the thin, dry pizza continues to spread, and with it, the vernacular apizza, a vestige of Neapolitan dialect.

Some Detroit pies feature pepperoni beneath the sauce, but we like it best up top, as at Emmy Squared, so the cups get nice and crispy.

Detroit

The Style: A rectangular pie best known for its crunchy caramelized-cheese-coated edge. The focaccia-esque bottom is usually lined first with “toppings,” then Wisconsin brick cheese followed by streaks of tomato sauce.

The Backstory: The steel trays (which bake similarly to cast iron) used on the first pies were reportedly leftovers from a car factory, where they held nuts and bolts.

Grandma

The Style: Cooked in a rectangular or square pan lined with oil, which gives it a crispy, golden crust. Lightly topped first with shredded mozz, then crushed canned tomatoes and a scattering of chopped garlic. A thinner relative of the Detroit pie.

The Backstory: Began as an off-menu item at the original Umberto’s of Long Island, NY, where founder Umberto Corteo served the pizza that “mama made” to friends.

Neapolitan

The Style: Hand-stretched, wood oven-fired, with a chewy crust and a floppy center. Some spots stick to strict Italian standards, others veer more neo-Neopolitan, especially when it comes to toppings (think duck meatballs, tomatillos, and smoked salmon).

New York

The Style: A deck-oven, gas-fired,18-inch wide pizza cut in eight slices usually sold both by the pie and by the slice. Completely covered by about equal amounts grated low-moisture mozzarella and thick, slightly-sweetened sauce up to about an inch of the puffed edge.